Hey there wanderers!
When we asked our youngest daughter where she wanted to go for her senior trip, she said Yellowstone National Park. I personally was hoping for the Caribbean or Central America somewhere, but hey... she wanted Yellowstone. I had already been to Yellowstone as a teen but my daughter and Chris had both never been. So we started planning for an epic week in the parks.
We used our timeshare condo in Island Park, Idaho which is just about a 30 minute drive south of West Yellowstone. This was before we had an RV.
The condo was great, a little dated but had all of the amenities including a driving range with a beautiful view of the sunset. You will see Makenzie perfecting her swing in the YouTube video we just posted.
Island Park also has a playhouse where we watched an absolutely hilarious dinner show. The show was at Mack's Playhouse but a new playhouse has since been built. Yellowstoneplayhouse.com is now the new venue. The dinner was great and the show was fantastic and I would highly recommend it. Even Makenzie was impressed which is hard to do at that age.
We also rented a raft at Mack's Inn and took a half day to float the Snake River (Henry's Fork). It was so peaceful and the water was crystal clear. We saw tons of birds and even a young moose at the river's edge.
We spent only a few days in Yellowstone simply because of the high volume of tour buses. Our absolute favorite spot in Yellowstone is the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. It is awe inspiring and the water falls are amazing. Our second favorite spot is Grand Prismatic (which I think is everyone else's favorite). The colors are stunning and do not forget to hike up behind it to the overlook. The Grand Prismatic is epic and beautiful. We then took off from there and hiked out through the Fairy Meadows to Fairy Falls. This was a nice break from the crowd as most people tend to stay on the beaten path. Of course, we saw Old Faithful and a few other popular spots along the way. We then headed up to Mammoth Hot Springs which is our third favorite spot to visit along with Roosevelt Lodge. We also spent a half day driving around and hanging out at Yellowstone Lake. The lake was also surrounded by deer and elk and the water was also pretty clear. And of course, tons of Bison just walking around everywhere, and I mean everywhere.
None of us had ever been to Jackson Hole so we took a day off from Yellowstone and drove down to Jackson Hole. We shopped and ate our way through the charming and tiny town and then we headed up into Grand Teton National Park where we spent the rest of the day driving around and hanging out at Jackson Lake.
Don't forget West Yellowstone! Such a charming town with a wild west theme, lots of shopping and places to eat as well. We visited the Grizzly Discover Center and old Union Pacific Train Depot which houses the Museum of Yellowstone.
We currently have another week planned this August 2021 near Jackson Hole and our sole purpose is to explore and hike our way through Grand Teton and we may head up to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, just because it is that amazing.
Please watch our latest video on YouTube and please subscribe if you haven't already. Also, if you would like to know more about our trip to these parks and the surrounding area, please send a message and we would be happy to help out.
Thanks for wandering off with us!
Chris and Brandi
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